Which Tech Giant Would You Drop?

The Big Five tech companies increasingly dominate our lives. Could you ditch them?

5 tech giants: MS, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. If you had to remove them from your life, which one would you remove first? Which one last?

My picks:

1. Amazon

Amazon might be big in USA, but outside, they are useless. I don't use AWS, don't buy shit from them and don't use their shitty devices. The one time I did try to buy some gadget or something, they wouldn't ship. The other time, they couldn't process my credit card. Good riddance.

BTW, the article's author has a customized little response for each pick.

And given how much lower you ranked Amazon than I did, I guess you feel you’ll be fine without it. However you rank it, if you ditch Amazon, you’ll drive more, you’ll brave longer shipping times, and you’ll lose access to all those reviews.

Oh boo hoo hoo. How will I ever live without those amazing shipping times and reviews? Give me a break.

2. Apple

I have an iPad, but I can get an equally good android tablet, so whatever. They don't make anything else that touches my life in any way. So bye bye Apple. That's what you get for being an exclusive shiny turd.

The author's response is great.

depending on the circles you run in, you might have to deal with social opprobrium: What will your friends say when you lose access to Apple’s messaging service and your texts start coming in green?

Oh the horror! Everyone will immediately know I am second class! I might as well die!

Is this guy for real?

3. Facebook

I don't use Facebook's social network(s), so I couldn't care less if that's gone. But I do use their excellent frontend framework, React. So that beats Apple for no 3.

4. Microsoft

Microsoft vs Google was the only tough choice for me. I actively use Microsoft's OS and occasionally use their Office products. Since I already got rid of Apple, getting rid of Windows would be tough. Going Linux exclusive would not be fun.

On the other hand, I'd still have my Android phone and search engine, and that just might be enough these days. Microsoft giving up phones pushed this over the edge for me.

The author:

That’s your first and most obvious loss here — but if it would have been a disabling absence a decade ago, today the world no longer depends as deeply on Microsoft’s desktop operating system. That’s why I chose Microsoft pretty early, but I suppose there’s a reason you have the Bill Gates forearm tattoo and I don’t.

Fuck you.

5. Google / Alphabet

Search engine, phones, google docs, maps, YouTube, programming languages, frameworks, research... It's hard to imagine the modern world without google more than any other company.

Facebook i don't use, Amazon is a nice thing but not really that useful to me. Google is a no-go, I could ditch Gmail but maps and YouTube are quite important, especially maps. Microsoft, heck, I'd have to change professions, so thanks but thanks, I'm sticking with these guys.

Ditching apple would be hard, but doable. I'd suffer a lot with Android and I'd have to migrate a lot of my stuff.

But this list is bullshit, really. There's no reason to ditch any of these companies, actually the one that you might really want to because of privacy reasons etc is Google (oh, and Facebook, I always forget about this little bugger).

@cartman82 I could do without Facebook, because I have done without them for several years now. I do not use their social network. That is extremely unlikely to change given how they tend to push their pet ideologies.

I would find dropping Google/Alphabet or Microsoft extremely difficult. I use Chrome, Android, Google search engine, Docs, Maps, Google Apps, Windows, Windows Server, Office and multitudes of other products of theirs. Dropping either of them would be extremely difficult.

Amazon...well I nearly dropped Amazon just a short while ago. Amazon Logistics started really fucking up my orders and deliveries to the point that I completely lost my shit with them. It got to the point that I attempted to cancel my Amazon Prime over all of the hassles and ended up getting a call from their Executive Customer Relations office. I had already made peace with the thought of not using them anymore, and they are still on thin ice with me. But, I got them to block Amazon Logistics as a delivery option for my address so I do not have to deal with AMZL anymore. But, I have also started frequenting other shopping sites as a result of the whole ordeal, so they probably lost 50% of my business.

Apple...I could take or leave. I like their laptops and such. I do not use their phones and I do not have an iPad. I find iOS to be a total sack of shit and it annoys me. But, if I had to give up my MacBooks and iMacs I would be OK. OSX is a pretty good OS to interact with, but I could do without it also. I am pretty far from being an Apple fanboy.

Apple I wouldn't miss at all: I have zero interest in their product range, and couldn't give two shits about the company itself.
Facebook I can live without: pretty much living without it already.
I'd miss Amazon, but I'd find an alternative.
I make too much use of Google Search, Maps, and YouTube to sacrifice them
But Microsoft is the one I'd miss the most, given my day job is .NET development, and I have a WinPhone, a Surface Pro, and Xboxen.

So, what does the article writer say?

Let's start with Apple:

I guess shiny baubles just aren’t your thing, eh? I saved Apple for the middle of my list, but you insist you can do without an iMac, Macbook, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch and of course, most monumentally, the iPhone.

I've gone over 32 years without those things, so obviously I can do without them, you condescending prick.

And it’s not just hardware that’s on the chopping block. Other companies now make very well-designed phones and computers, but none of them run iOS or MacOS, still the best consumer device software on the market. And finally, depending on the circles you run in, you might have to deal with social opprobrium: What will your friends say when you lose access to Apple’s messaging service and your texts start coming in green?

The only way you could worship Apple more is by giving Tim Cook fellatio.

Facebook:

Sure, Facebook is a social monster. It’s the most obvious place to reach just about anybody you’re looking for, to keep ambiently aware of everything happening to everyone you’ve ever met.

Clearly you depend on Facebook more than I do. What, keeping in touch with friends through texts and handwritten letters sealed with wax (also, email, Twitter and Snapchat) isn’t enough for you? Or perhaps you’re hooked on Instagram, home now to 700 million people documenting their wonderful lives? Or, more likely, you can’t resist WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, which each claim a billion folks messaging nonstop.

You know what? I'm done giving time to this twat. Anyone this outrageously condescending and insulting isn't worth the oxygen they breathe.

The Big Five tech companies increasingly dominate our lives. Could you ditch them?

5 tech giants: MS, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. If you had to remove them from your life, which one would you remove first? Which one last?

Facebook and apple, tied for first. I don't use either of their products and have no plans on ever going back. Microsoft ain't going away for me unless the self destruct in which case i'll move to linux before i get the dried spunk of Steve Jobs anywhere near me again. google andc amazon..... i like the product they offer. someone else would have to offer something better to make me get rid of them.... or they'd have to go actually full on sith.

Facebook. That one group would have to go back to using a forum. Oh no! (It's turning in that direction anyway, because of some idiot drama with wannabe hangers on trying to dictate to those of us who actually participate in the physical community)

Microsoft. If these guys went, I'd probably have to learn new skills for work. Probably.

Amazon. Their loss without equivalent replacement would introduce substantial supply chain difficulties for my hobbies and day to day life.

Alphabet. Their loss would result in a large number of workflow changes across my professional, hobby and personal lives.

I can't stand Apple's culture and philosophies, especially post-Jobs. They've always had an obnoxious fanbase that has been less and less justified in their fanboyism.

2.) Facebook

Admittedly I go on Facebook on a daily basis, although it's always been sort of an idle habit more than anything. I'd probably get over it pretty quickly and just find another idle habit to adopt, like trolling reddit.

3.) Amazon

Amazon Prime streaming is the only thing I'd really miss. They fill some gaps Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube have.

4.) Microsoft

Without Apple and Microsoft, I'd probably just be forced into Linux land. I've always been more or less indifferent to Linux. I've used it professionally in the past and while there's a learning curve involved, it's alright. Plus, with everyone effectively forced to adopt Linux after MS and Apple are gone, the open-source community would effectively double overnight, and improvements would be made.

5.) Alphabet

Google's just a necessary evil to me. Plus, unlike Linux being an alternative to Microsoft/Apple, the only thing left after losing Android and iOS is Blackberry, at which point I'd probably decide to plug a toaster into the bathroom outlet, get in a bathtub full of water, and my last words will be "god speed, world!"

@cartman82 For me, dropping Facebook would require me to take it up first. Obvious #1.

Then there's MS and Apple, tied in second place for the chop. I use operating systems by both of them (and some hardware by Apple) but don't feel any great commitment to either, and could adapt fairly rapidly to being without both. YMMV, but neither hold a great attraction for me.

Getting rid of either Amazon or GoogleAlphabet would be very hard. We use AWS a lot (the rest of Amazon… meh). We use many Google services a lot. Disentangling from that… deeply painful.

Fucking Apple TV. I forgot about Apple TV.
That one would be hard to do without...but I would find an alternative. The Apple TV is pretty slick, but I have not ever tried any of the alternatives...

I had Roku long before Apple TV ever existed, it's cheaper and just as good or better. Plus it was available before Google and Apple got their shit together on making streaming boxes.

I had Roku. I gave away or threw away their boxes after adopting Apple TV. It has become so incorporated in our life that I forgot about it earlier. The interface is worlds ahead of anything else we tried and it was the first thing to get past the Wife Acceptance Factor.

To each their own, but Apple TV is pretty awesome for our family. iOS is otherwise pretty shit though.

Apple. Got an iPod as a gift a few years ago. Other than that, I have never owned an Apple product (and the Windows version of iTunes is the most godawful shit ever)

Facebook. Looked around for a few minutes, in 2010. Closed my account the next day and haven't thought about them since.

Amazon. I've bought a couple of things from them, but there are plenty of other places to buy things that are just as good or better. Too many products on Amazon are actually being sold by shady, disreputable 3rd parties. Same reason why I rarely buy anything on Ebay.

Google. YouTube is nothing more than a time killer -- fun for the occasional video. Search is shit and getting worse. GMail is nice, but only because its free. I have my own domain for email and only use my GMail account when I don't want to give someone my "real" email address.

Microsoft is really the only one I couldn't do without. As bad as Windows and Office are, everything else is worse.

Also - I would play the ordering game too, but it'svery badly constructed. The question is "which of these could you live without" and the answer is sorted list of all choices. Is 1 "want it gone asap" or "would really miss it, but less than other four"? It would be pretty minor problem TBH, but then your answers are compared to the author's, with the implicit and absolutely bullshit assumption you use the same baseline and scale.

Anyway. I never used any Apple product in my entire life (except Quicktime back in Win 98 days when I accidentally installed it and then launched it once to see what it is). Don't plan on using it in future either. I used to have FB, but deleted it long time ago and the only effect was more time. If WhatsApp was gone, I'd install Viber. Amazon recently opened a distribution center in Poland and started paying $0.50/h more than competition, driving wages up a bit, and that's good. I use many Google services because they're pretty good, but every single one has a decent replacement. I would only miss MS if it also meant the already released software is gone too.

What's an interesting thing to me, reflecting on that list, is that the company I hate the most would be extremely hard for me to get rid of. Luckily there's still Microsoft, I really like them and I don't feel even a bit bad that I couldn't ditch them.

But the most interesting to me is that dthe company that produces one of the greatest pieces of equipment in the world would be one of the easiest to for me ditch. And not only that, what I think is really telling is thay it's the most profitable company of all of these.

But let's leave this at that, I don't want to derail this thread in this particular direction.

I have a Facebook account and people occasionally remind me of this fact ... IRL ("you probably didn't see the message on FB, but ... ${message}"). Don't use Apple stuff, so if they went away, I'd rejoice because it would mean that the probability of having to deal with iOS/OSX/Metal/Apple-only-API/service is reduced to zero. Around here, you get the choice between Amazon Germany and Amazon UK (and the latter will probably become [more] useless post-Brexit). Whatever little price differences exist get offset by shipping and currency conversion, so you're left with worse shipping and more of a hassle if you're not happy with the product. (And their digital stuff occasionally is restricted to respective countries.)

I was fairly neutral about Microsoft/Alphabet, until I realized that without Alphabet, I'd be either on an iOS or Microsoft smartphone and that I can most definitively live with never ever having to deal with an excel (time- or otherwise) sheet again.

But the most interesting to me is that dthe company that produces one of the greatest pieces of equipment in the world would be one of the easiest to for me ditch. And not only that, what I think is really telling is thay it's the most profitable company of all of these.

General conclusion in the article is that Facebook is by far the number one on the chopping block.

But I wonder how much of that is just aspirational. People hate Facebook and are always talking about ditching it. Yet, FB just keeps growing and growing.

Facebook — Other than ending up there by accident a few times, the closest I’ve come to using Facebook is having looked over someone’s shoulder once when it was being shown to me. It’s never appealed to me at all in any way (partly due to some strange psychology of mine that makes me not want things “everybody” uses or does, unless I happen to discover a good use for it on my own accord).

Amazon — I’ve bought some things through them, but only because that was the most convenient way to get some books I was looking for. Nothing I couldn’t get through other sites or shops.

Microsoft — I’ve barely used anything by MS for the last 15 years or so, except when external circumstances forced me to, so it’s not like I’d miss them.

Google — There are other search engines, so not using Google anymore wouldn’t be that major a problem. I barely use any of their other stuff like YouTube or Gmail, but it’s nice to have if I need it. (OTOH, if the vote has to be for Alphabet, then it moves up to position 1 — nobody uses Alphabet as such, do they?)

Apple — I’ve been a satisfied Mac user for over a decade (though I have to admit, I want back the stability that the OS had in those days … ) and find macOS a lot easier to use than Windows or most Linux desktops I’ve tried.

But I wonder how much of that is just aspirational. People hate Facebook and are always talking about ditching it. Yet, FB just keeps growing and growing.

Not just aspirational round here. It seems that lots of us are current non-users of it, and removing it from our lives is trivial. We would be literally entirely unimpacted by it suddenly vanishing up its own ass in a puff of digital smoke. No matter how much they keep growing, you're looking at a highly-resistant bunch of anti-FB computer folk.

But the most interesting to me is that dthe company that produces one of the greatest pieces of equipment in the world would be one of the easiest to for me ditch. And not only that, what I think is really telling is thay it's the most profitable company of all of these.

General conclusion in the article is that Facebook is by far the number one on the chopping block.

But I wonder how much of that is just aspirational. People hate Facebook and are always talking about ditching it. Yet, FB just keeps growing and growing.

Yeah, I think Facebook falls into the same category as tabloids. People will always talk it's wrong and then they'll happily consume.

But the most interesting to me is that dthe company that produces one of the greatest pieces of equipment in the world would be one of the easiest to for me ditch. And not only that, what I think is really telling is thay it's the most profitable company of all of these.

General conclusion in the article is that Facebook is by far the number one on the chopping block.

But I wonder how much of that is just aspirational. People hate Facebook and are always talking about ditching it. Yet, FB just keeps growing and growing.

Yeah, I think Facebook falls into the same category as tabloids. People will always talk it's wrong and then they'll happily consume.

Also they own Whatsapp, which they haven't screwed up too badly yet. (Though the idea of adding the stories is frankly rather dumb).

Apple first. I use no Apple products or services, so have already dropped them.
Amazon and Facebook are pretty close. I use both a bit but don't get anything out of them I couldn't get somewhere else. I'd put Amazon above Facebook just because I go on Facebook more often, even if it is just idle time killing
Google/alphabet would be a bit more tricky. Wouldn't really have a problem switching to bing for search, YouTube is something I only visit via links on other sites. I use maps quite a lot but bing would probably be ok to replace it with (don't know, never used it). Chrome isn't that much better than other browsers. Gmail would be an arse since it's my login email address for so many other systems and although I like android I'd be able to switch to another phone OS.
Microsoft is my bread and butter as a .net developer. My entire livelihood is using visual studio on Windows to develop applications on Windows or web apps hosted on Windows server through IIS.

Apple - don't have anything of theirs, never have. It's possible I might end up with a mac for work in the next year, though.

Microsoft - I pretty much already have.

Facebook - this I would sorely miss

Amazon - we buy a lot of stuff there. And if you want to be pendantic, we could talk about all the stuff that runs on AWS that you don't even realize (plus a bunch of stuff that people around here do realize, of course).

It's hard because of all the projects/products/services/etc. each of these runs, but purely at a user level:

Facebook - My family uses it to share pictures and such, but it's been years since I liked how it worked or the changes they've been making. Easily the first to go.

Amazon - I rarely shop there nowadays and everything I hear is that it's a horrible employer at the warehouse/shipping level. Would a worse employer fill in the void?

Apple - I don't use iOS products and my last Mac was blueberry flavored, so they don't have much direct impact on me. They do make for interesting competition, though, at least in the US.

Alphabet and Microsoft - I use a lot of Google/Alphabet services and all of my current software is Windows-based, so I'd want to keep both of these. I guess I'd give up Google before Microsoft, but they're pretty close.

@dkf I have actually. From when I first got Windows 10 until the creators update, I used Edge as my main browser and never had enough trouble with bing to feel the need to change the default search engine. Now I've switched to opera, I don't see the need to switch from Google either, there's not much to choose between them

Amazon
I largely gave up on Amazon after Amazon Logistics failed to achieve next day delivery on a laptop, and next day delivery became multiple calls and three weeks.

Apple
I used to be more of an Apple fan, my 2011 MacBook is still pretty solid, although the graphics card is now long in the tooth. But their quality has gone down, and although I have a year old iPad, and a sizeable iTunes library, my next tablet might well be an Android.

Facebook
I have a lot of friends who aren't technical enough or niche enough to use forums, plus there's my family.

Google
Sure, I use Google. I sometimes use Maps but my phone is an old Nokia for which the offline maps app is still pretty good. But I remember when Google was just getting started and Bing hasn't been massively worse for me of late.

Microsoft
I use Windows and like playing games, for which Mac and Linux just don't keep up with the range of games I want to play because I play everything from emulated machines from 1982 to AAA titles from this year.